Many months ago, Mr. Holga reminded me of Holga Week over on Instagram, I think.* Almost immediately, I determined to waste use the 5-pack of Fuji’s discontinued and now wildly expensive Pro400H that spent the past 5 years chilling in the fridge on a shoot-out between the Holga 120N, with it’s 645 mask, and the FPP Debonair…
Who came out the winner? No spoilers, but the Holga produced my favorite shot of the entire week…
As mentioned last week, I started Holga Week in Denver, CO, on a trip with Mom to visit Aunt Patty. We departed Eureka Springs on September 28, arrived Denver Sept. 29, and I started shooting for Holga Week on October 1.
We stayed in a great AirBnB near Patty’s house, and spent most mornings and afternoons hanging out there, with brief visits to walk with my Aunt and a couple of trips out to see some sights.
On our fifth day, I think, that is, the fourth day of Holga Week, we took a trip up to Boulder, where Mom made watercolors of the Flatiorns while I walked 1.5 miles uphill, then around the rocks, then back down. Partway up, maybe the third time I ran out of breath and had to pause for a bit, I decided to make a panorama. I’m not very good at this—I’ve only done this a handful of times—so they overlap too much, but it’s ok. (Note: the Debonair image is on top; the Holga image is on the bottom.)
I wrote about the nice climber I met on the hike. You can go back a week and read about our encounter: no need to mention it again.
Aunt Patty’s friend Mike, lifelong Denver resident and former member of the Brothers Fast, a Denver motorcycle club that re-patched as Hells Angels in the early 2000s,** took us on a drive. He told some great stories as he zigzagged back and forth around downtown Denver for nearly two hours. After my hike, I was way too tired and hungry to take any pictures with the plastic cameras.
The next day, Mom and Patty planned to do some line dancing in the morning, so while they danced, I went for a walk around the little pond down the street from Patty’s house. She lives very near to Lakeside Amusement Park and imagine my distresses when I learned it’s only open between Memorial and Labor Days… Missed it by this much.
That afternoon, while Mom napped, I drove up to Golden, CO, to Lookout Mountain. I parked at a park down the hill from the Buffalo Bill Museum & Grave, walked up to and around the museum (worth the $5 admissions, I suppose) then back down. I tried my hand at panoramas, again, and again with lackluster results. (Again, Debonair is on top.)
The next day, we said “bye” to Aunt Patty, and drove to Topeka, Kansas to spend the night. The next morning, we visited the Old Prairie Town at the Ward-Meade Historic Site (I made no photographs with the Holga or Debonair) and then to Truckhenge, where I made a panorama with the Debonair, then thought better of it and made two separate images with the Holga.
Turning around, I noticed trucks exiting a gravel storage facility down the street. They made a nice cloud of smoke on the dirt road that I thought might photograph well.
They didn’t quite see the cloud, but I turned around and made the best image of Holga Week (with the Holga) and a decent one with the Debonair.
That Holga image (on the right) was my third entry for Holga Week, and I’m really pleased with it. Yes, yes, it’s a photograph almost everyone would make, and yes, yes, almost every other person with any sort of camera would do a better job of it than have I. Still, I love it.
And that was Holga Week 2021! I had fun, as I suspected I might. The next Holga Week comes around next year, October 1-7 2022: plenty of time to practice..
*… or Twitter. In any case, I can’t find it now.
** This article mentions a Brothers Fast member in his 60s who declined to re-patch… I wonder if this isn’t Mike, who still wears Brothers Fast patches and pins on his jackets and hats to this day…
